sneak peek: amie corley

When Amie Corley and her husband Rob purchased this 1907 St. Louis home in 2004, Amie was just starting her career as a decorator. Her passion for fashion easily morphed into a love of interiors, and when friends began asking her for help, Amie Corley Interiors was born. Textiles and wallpaper are always her starting point and Amie’s interiors express a love of texture, big doses of color and mixing antiques with mid-century modern, with her Louisiana roots providing great inspiration. This home is a mingling of architectural styles — part Georgian in its boxy, symmetrical layout and part Beaux Arts in its ornate millwork and arched windows. Both Amie and Rob believe that preserving old homes is like preserving a work of art, and we love what they’ve done. Thanks, Amie! — Anne

Image above: The sunroom is the only room downstairs that has a TV and is our family room. The little round table and chairs is a great place to work or have breakfast. The morning light in this room is amazing. The room looks out onto the park and has windows on all three sides, so the view is really spectacular. The floors are original terrazzo that have a hint of pink in them, so I played it up with a very light pink wall. I can’t believe my husband allowed this, but it does look great. It is a warm and sunny room and the pink is a perfect compliment to the chartreuse chairs and melon sofa. The colors are pretty intense in this room, but I wanted it to be saturated and happy. The chairs are vintage Knoll recovered in Romo chartreuse linen, the sofa is Anthropologie Milo in coral linen. The coffee table is from Oly and is one of my favorite pieces in the room. The pillows are in Brunschwig Bayadere ikat. The round table and chairs are all vintage and the seats are recovered in Trina Turk Arches print. I can’t get enough of her line for Schumacher. It is great for people with kids!

Image above: The foyer of the house is a large center hall with a staircase. The photo of the settee is in a little nook on the side of the staircase. It was kind of dead area and I wasn’t initially sure of what to do with it until I found this great gilt settee on eBay that was the perfect size. A little reupholstery and a couple of zebra pillows gave it all the oomph it needed. The size is perfect for the little nook and sometimes at the end of a party, I’ll find guests having a night cap in this secluded little area. The alligator print from Natural Curiosities is a nod to my Cajun heritage.

Image above: The ballroom is where my office and Henry’s play area are. I wanted it to be a fun area with nothing too precious. Everything is either vintage or Ikea and I’m ok when the occasional red crayon gets used on the sofa! The yellow buffet is from Ikea and the music posters are from a local artist.

Image above: Henry’s bedroom was such a fun project because I didn’t know the sex of the baby when I was pregnant. I wanted the room to be a visual treat for a baby. Lots of color and pattern — and I love the way it turned out. The wallpaper tree is by Inke Heiland and I added a few leaves in some of my favorite flavor paper wallpapers. The curtains are from Anthropologie, green nightstands are Bungalow 5 and the lamps are Jonathan Adler. Henry now sleeps in this big queen-size bed and it’s so funny to see him sitting in the middle of it. The lattice wallpaper is Manuel Canovas.

Image above: The chairs are vintage Thonet covered in my favorite Valtekz “leather” peacock torello. I always joke with my clients that a kid can pee on this stuff and it will be fine. It is indestructible and my go-to workhorse fabric! My office is also in the ballroom, and while I would love to be able to move my studio out of my house, for now this is a great set-up. The desk is a West Elm “classic” with a vintage Ward Bennett pod chair purchased on eBay and covered in one of my favorite Gaston y Daniela fabrics.

Image above: One of our more recent projects was this first-floor powder room. I wanted it to look girly and pretty and this Schumacher “lace” wallpaper was perfect. I love using really large scale prints like this in a small room. I added a vintage 60s Venini chandelier and a few hand towels monogrammed in orange from Leontine Linens. It’s always amazing how wallpaper can really change a room.

Image above: The window seat is one of my favorite areas of the house. It is on the landing of the main staircase with a huge 20-ft. arched window above it that looks out onto the back yard. I had pillows made in one of my favorite Quadrille fabrics — New Batik — and the window seat cushions are made in Groundworks Confetti fabric. I love polka dots and this pattern has a more random splay of dots and almost looks like a hazy animal print from a distance.

Image above: This is a little nook in our third-floor guest bedroom. One of the only things I inherited from my grandmother was this chaise lounge and I wanted to reinvent it. When my grandmother owned it, it was tufted and covered in blue and gold striped chenille. Not exactly my taste, but I knew it would be a great piece in this guest room. I wallpapered the room in Neisha Crosland’s Birdtree paper and had the chaise reupholstered in one of my all-time favorite fabrics — Brunschwig’s Les Touches. It’s classic but will always look current. The rest of the room is soothing with an all-white bed and little coral accents like this throw. The cockatoo lamp is from Arteriors Home.

Image above: Our first big gut project was the master bath. When we bought the house, the bathroom was carpeted (beyond gross) and the everything was on its last leg. The previous owners had installed a horrible plastic shower in the 80s and Rob and I knew that we needed to start saving our money for a redo. When we finally gutted it, we knew exactly what we wanted — his and her sinks, a big soaking tub and a large walk-in shower. All of the tiles are Walker Zanger, sinks from Restoration Hardware and bathtub from vintagetubs.com.

Image above: This room connects to our dining room and is great for entertaining. The house has double parlors flanking the foyer and this is one of them. There is baby grand piano on one side of the room and a pair of Barcelona chairs in the nooks, one of which is shown. The seaweed prints were purchased on eBay and the rug is one of my favorites of Jonathan Adler’s.

Love it. We must have the same sense of style, I have many of the same furniture pieces. I love and have been pining away for those curtains from Anthropologie. My home would look very similar to this if I had more $$ in my decorating fund. Someday…

grace, I think the photo of the round marble top table and 4 white chairs is out of order. It’s near the bottom but is the first thing she references in her write up of the home at the top (in the sunroom). I was trying to figure out how she would work or have breakfast at that tiny round end table behind the upholstered chairs! :)

This house is a MASTERPIECE of DESIGN LOVE. The symmetry balanced against brilliant color, texture, and pattern is utter perfection. The most beautiful sneak peek I have seen and HERE HERE for preserving old homes!

What a fun house! Great use of color. I struggle with wanting to add/take away color in my house since this is a kid-friendly house but I feel the need to make it adult-friendly as well. Great job doing both!

I just helped a friend paint the living room in her new bungalow in a very similar dark teal color, with white trim. We used high gloss enamel paint to refurbish a secretary — it’s dark avocado green, and it looks great in the room. We also have those exact same white cane chairs in the room around a tulip glass top table! I love this teal color. It’s much more versatile that you’d think initially.

Carrie is right: under the first photo she mentions “The round table and chairs are all vintage and the seats are recovered in Trina Turk Arches print.” I was very confused until I got to that picture down near the end.

I just joined discovered this blog and love it! I am head
over heels in love with the chairs in the breakfast room, I passed
ones similar up in a flea market a few years back and have kicked
myself! II can’t find these anywhere- I know she says they are
vintage but anyone know if someone if making a reproduction of
these metal chinese chippendale chairs? I am desperate to find some
for aound my pool! Love this site and all the sneak peaks! Amie you
are truly an artist!

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